Actress, dramatist, and novelist, daughter of John Simpson, a Suffolk farmer; came to London at the age of 18, seeking a theatrical engagement; after some adventures she met Joseph Inchbald, an actor of no note, to whom she was married in 1772; shortly afterwards she made her début as Cordelia at Bristol; after seven years in the provinces and nine in London, during which she failed to rise high in her profession, she turned to literature; she wrote and adapted many plays, but the works by which she is remembered are two novels, "A Simple Story" and "Nature and Art" (1753-1821).